Submitted on Tue, 06/06/2006 - 12:49pm
By x345292 - Industrial Worker, June 2006
After six months of preparation and negotiation eighteen workers at Stonemountain and Daughter Fabrics in Berkeley, California, ratified a renegotiated agreement with store owners Suzan and Bob Steinberg.
The road to the final agreement was bumpy, twisting and fraught with peril. For example, a small group of workers tried to decertify the union. They worked steadily to build support among their coworkers. When they missed a legal window of opportunity (between 90 and 60 days prior to the expiration date of the contract) they red-baited and attempted other smear tactics.
As with most retail business, Stonemountain hires mostly part time workers, pays low wages with no benefits and turn-over is high. The union has changed these conditions somewhat. Still, most of the workers who voted for the union in 2003 have left or were fired. By the time meetings began to discuss proposals for a new contract the shop was in disarray. One of the new workers, Holly, agreed to be shop delegate replacing Wayne, who was one of the original core of union organizers but needed a break. In the meantime several of the new hires had not been signed up. As time went on they formed the core of the anti-union workers. Included among them was a long-time employee who likes to play boss. In the middle were several workers who repeatedly shifted sides.
Submitted on Tue, 06/06/2006 - 12:39pm
Staff Report - Industrial Worker, June 2006
IWW and Make the Road by Walking supporters are walking intermittent picket lines at Brooklyn's Amersino produce distribution warehouse, after the boss provoked a short walk-out by firing two IWW activists. One, Eliezer Maca, was fired for challenging the boss's attempt to rig a union representation election by bringing in voters who did not work at the facility.
A majority of Amersino workers joined the IWW in March, and demanded union recognition, reinstatement of fired workers, and an end to company violations of minimum wage and overtime laws. While workers won some immediate gains, the boss demanded a National Labor Relations Board election and pulled out all the stops to win it.
Throughout April, the boss made threats to fire workers and close the warehouse. He reportedly bribed workers to vote against the union. And on April 28, the day of the election, he brought in managers and workers from other facilities to vote against the IWW while challenging several workers' votes by falsely claiming they didnÕt work there. Twenty of the 35 ballots cast were contested.
On April 29, a day after the rigged election, two workers' leaders were suspended without just cause. IWW workers walked out declaring that they would not work unless the two were returned to the job. The boss quickly brought in scabs to replace the union workers, although almost all the scab workers were talked out of working that day.
On May Day, New York Wobblies mounted a spirited picket line outside Amersino as work began at 5:30 a.m. before joining the immigrant rights actions later that day.
On May 2 workers arrived ready to work but were locked out. Later that day the boss agreed to take back all but five workers. As the Department of Labor and the National Labor Relations Board take their time reviewing documents, five fired workers are searching for new jobs.
Submitted on Wed, 05/31/2006 - 1:59am
'Rogue Corporation' is Flouting the Law with Impunity
New York, NY- Still reeling from a defeat at the National Labor Relations Board in March, Starbucks was hit with a fresh legal charge from the IWW Starbucks Workers Union today. The Labor Board charge outlines continuing discrimination and retaliation against union baristas by the world's largest
coffee chain. The legal filing and supporting evidence establish that Starbucks has breached the settlement agreement reached with the government less than three months ago.
“If there was any doubt in the past, Starbucks now has made clear its anti-worker intentions,” said the union's General Counsel, Stuart Lichten, of Schwartz, Lichten, and Bright. “The company is violating one bedrock labor rights principle after another.”
Submitted on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 2:49am
This story was psoted after May 20th, so the tense doesn't agree with the date of the posting. We will bring more news about this campaign as it develops.
TORONTO – Members of the Toronto branch of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) are pleased to announce a recruitment drive in several targeted workplaces in the city’s service and retail sectors. The IWW will kick off this campaign on May 20 with a public event at 18 Eastern Ave. (lower level), at 7 pm, featuring a presentation by Tomer Malchi. Malchi is involved in the union’s highly publicized organizing initiative at Starbucks coffee shops in New York City. On May 21, Malchi will lead an organizing workshop for interested participants.
The Cincinnati-headquartered IWW, which celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2005, is presently at its highest membership level since the 1940s, having recently enjoyed recruitment successes in, among other areas of the economy, New York food services and the California trucking industry. The union’s Toronto branch was re-established in the summer of last year.
While supportive of other trade unions, the IWW – informally known as the Wobblies – differs from mainstream organizations in its emphasis on rank-and-file initiative. IWW staff is minimal and dues paid by members are much lower than in other labour bodies.
According to Toronto branch secretary Rachel Rosen, this approach is appropriate in an economy where low-wage positions with high turnover constitute much of the “final frontier” for organizers. In retail, she added, “many workers can barely support themselves. They can’t afford expensive dues. But they could use the assistance and solidarity of an organization that’s been around for a long time. They need to come together to improve their wages and benefits in workplaces where employers clearly don’t have their interests at heart.”
Young workers, according to Rosen, are also drawn to the IWW because of its alternative image, its commitment to a green, de-centralized economy and its standoffish approach to political parties.
Aside from unorganized workers, the IWW also recruits the unemployed, students and dues-paying members of other unions (with no raiding intentions). The IWW “organizes the worker and not the job” and takes the view that those of its members who belong to other unions have a responsibility, in those organizations, to promote Wobbly values of grassroots democracy and militant action.
Submitted on Sat, 05/27/2006 - 2:35am
A Campus Campaign for Starbucks Baristas and Coffee Farmers
Friends:
This is a call for activists towards a campus campaign to achieve dignity on the job for Starbucks baristas and coffee farmers.
Despite its attempt to create a socially responsible image, Starbucks' failure to meaningfully embrace Fair Trade coffee has left coffee farmers and their children teetering on the brink of starvation in the Global South. A new documentary, Black Gold (www.blackgoldmovie.com), reveals in detail the pained existence of coffee farmers under the purchasing practices of Starbucks and other multinational corporations.
In Starbucks cafes, baristas are paid a poverty wage and the company insures a lower percentage of employees than Wal-Mart. Starbucks baristas are organizing a union (www.starbucksunion.org) with the Industrial Workers of the World for a better life on and off the job. In response, the company has waged a fierce and relentless anti-union campaign that tramples on workers' rights. In this union-busting operation unburdened by the law, Starbucks routinely retaliates against baristas for supporting the union. In addition, Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz recently broke the union of roasting plant employees.